“Trish was exactly my type,” I admitted.“The day I met you, I’d been flirting with her all afternoon.”
“If she’d asked you out, would you have said yes?”
“If I’d never met you?If she was single?Yeah, and I would have slept with her too.I’m glad that never happened.Looking back on my dating history, I feel like a sleaze.”
“Why?”
“I had a lot of sex before I met you.”
“So did I,” he said.
“But only with three people, and with Edgar, you didn’t have sex.You’ve only had two relationships before me, and they were both serious.Off the top of my head, I don’t even know how many girlfriends I’ve had.”
He shrugged.“Doesn’t bother me.If it’s good experience—if you learned what you like and what you don’t.”
“But I don’t know that I did.I got off, and I got my girlfriends off, but I think it was more because they knew what they were doing.I wasn’t with any of them long enough to do anything except straight sex and oral and hand stuff and kissing.”
“You’re good at kissing.”
“My first girlfriend—Deb—didn’t want to go any further than kissing, so that’s all we did for four months.And since kissing was all I could do with her, I got pretty good.”
“I think I’d get pretty turned on watching you getting teased like that.”
I laughed.“Yeah, I jacked a lot those four months—at home, not in front of her.Feeling turned on for that long and not being able to act on it can really get to you.”
“Yeah, I know.”He gave me a little push.
“Shit.I Debbed you for five months, didn’t I?But you know what?I was grateful to her.I really learned self-control.I never went off by accident when I was with her.”
“That self-control went out the window with me, didn’t it?”
“Well, maybe when you’re that attracted to someone, it’s hard to keep a hold of yourself.Especially when your partner doesn’t mind that you can’t.”
“No.”He stroked my face.“He doesn’t mind at all.”
I smiled.“Lucky for me.We’re perfect for each other.”Then I remembered.“Shit!My parents.I was supposed to come out to them tonight.I forgot because of...”I held up my thumb with the engagement ring.“And...”I picked up the bag of buttons, like that was an excuse.“And then....”I put my hand on his cheek.Okay, good excuse, but.
“You don’t have to come out tonight if you’re not ready,” he said.
“I’ve gotta do it tonight.If I don’t, I’ll keep putting it off, and it won’t happen.”I got off the couch.I felt stressed out, like it was the night before a dance competition.
“Why don’t you practice your tap first?”he said.“You’re always relaxed after you do that.”
“That’s a good idea, actually.”
Yeah, I was stalling, but it was justifiable stalling.
I got out my tap board and spent the next hour practicing.My head wasn’t in it at first, then something clicked.I felt him watching me, but he wasn’t a distraction.I liked having him near me when I tapped.He had an effect on my technique that was hard to explain.The ground felt more solid under my feet.
I was hitting the board hard, pushing my limits, and by the time I’d finished my cooldown routine, I was blown out, tension gone, and I was hot and relaxed.But my heart was rattling in my chest like a die in a cup.That was when he came up and put his arms around me, though my clothes were saturated with sweat and stuck to my skin.
“Eddie, I’m all gross.”
“You’re sexy,” he murmured, starting to feel me up just like I had, my first time with him.He was holding me up too, since I was so winded from practice.
I leaned into him.“I really need a shower.”
“Sure.But you feel really hot right now.After you talk to your parents, let’s fuck.”
